~ strength. endurance. passion.

Grady Michael

On March 1st, 2014 Mike and I met the most perfect little person, someone we’ve been waiting to meet for 40 weeks and 5 days. We named this little guy Grady Michael. He was born at 8:05pm weighing in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and measuring 21.2 inches long.

Like every woman in my family, I was past my due date and more than ready to have our baby on the outside. My house was clean and organized, my fridge and pantry stocked and all the little to-do’s were checked off. So I did all the things everyone tells you to:

I bounced on the birth ball for hours on end:

I got an incredible pedicure (where the woman next to me asked if I was having twins 😐 ):

Then Mike and I went for an hour long trail walk on February 28th:

Last family of two selfie:

Around 3am on March 1st I was woken up by what felt like mild menstrual cramps. I watched the clock and noticed they were time-able and coming at regular intervals, every 15 minutes. I laid there watching the clock for an hour just to be sure, woke Mike up and started using my contraction timing app. Within another hour I was at ten minutes apart so we got out of bed, showered (shaved my legs – priorities people!) and I called my mom to tell her to be on standby.

My OB had said when the contractions were 5 minutes apart was when it was time to head to the hospital. Around lunchtime the contractions started to slow down so I retreated to the bedroom to pout and try to get a little sleep. Finally around 2pm the contractions picked up again and were 10-15 min apart but were starting to get very very painful. I called the OB at 3pm and she told me to hang on until 5 minutes apart. So I continued to labor with Mike and my girls by my side.

At 530pm I suddenly went from 10-15 min apart to 2-5 minutes apart. At this point I was pretty much screaming through every contraction and Mike was really trying to get me to leave for the hospital but I was very much in denial. He finally got me to leave at 6pm and we were at the hospital by 620pm.

By the time we got to the hospital my contractions were on top of each other, I had never felt that much pain before. I was such a mess and am so thankful that my husband is very calm in stressful situations and was my rock. I was brought back to triage and told that I was already 8cm dialated but my water hadn’t broken yet. I was immediately taken to labor and delivery (around 645pm) where my mom joined us. At this point I was BEGGING for drugs and proclaiming that I couldn’t do it anymore. The shaking was uncontrollable and my pupils were so restricted from the pain that my mom and Mike both said I looked high. I was very very fortunate that my water hadn’t broken and that the anesthesiologist just happened to be free and nearby. Fluids were pushed, blood drawn, a million health history questions were answered and about an hour later I got the sweet relief of a small dose of the epidural.

My OB came in, broke my water and told the nurse to bring Mike and my mom back in (they had to leave during the epidural) because I was 10cm and it was time to push. When Mike came in she asked him what he did for a living and then informed him that he was going to catch Grady. Approximately 4 contractions and 1 episiotemy (necessary because Grady’s heart rate kept dropping) later and our little man came screaming into the world at 8:05 pm. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. He was placed onto my chest where he promptly peed all over me (little stinker) and we had our first cuddle for about an hour. All the necessary testing, measuring, etc were done and then Mike had his turn.

We were sent home two days later to start our adventure with our newly expanded family!